Sunday, 25 September 2016

The Unimpeachable Kong Hee - a reply to Calvin Ho.

One of the Executive
Members of City Harvest Church, Calvin Ho, has finally spoken (or written). Not
surprisingly, he stands firm on the side of Kong Hee and Sun Ho. He is asking
for “the establishment to demonstrate sound moral judgment and consistency of
its acts” because he “can no longer
see this unprecedentedly protracted court case go so wrong in the eyes of (his)
conscience, and so unjustified in so many aspects, and to-date still delivers
an awful lack of convincing balance of sound, good-conscience judgment.”
Underscore “awful”.

Calvin then went
on to “call out the obvious that is so wrong, in the whole scheme of things,
and with a beholding of the state of affairs in this country (he) observe(s),
as a total human-citizen-Christian-CHC Executive Member observer.”

He then posed
five questions in his letter and I have
added my thoughts to them– as usual. Here
goes.

First, he asked,
“where is the legal basis for CBT when there is no personal gain or benefit?” I
will respectfully leave this part in the ably hands of the Court of Three
Judges because as a Christian, my concern has always been with the spiritual
and moral responsibility, stewardship and accountability of the CHC’s leadership
before any dissected legal culpability of the collective six.

On this note, what
is therefore not denied (and can’t be denied) is that Kong Hee’s stewardship
has fallen way below what is expected of a leader, especially a church. The
laundry list starts with shifting blame instead of bearing them, lying to the
Church about his wife’s singing success and album sales, shamelessly touting
her as the next “Whitney Houston,”
living off the millions in extravagance while the poor and struggling in his
Church live in modest accommodation, some
even just scraping by, splurging on his wife quite mindlessly on a pretense
of questionable evangelism resulting in money that could be used for other more
worthy, effective and proven evangelistic causes (and definitely less
controversial), and failing to make full and frank disclosure as the trustee,
shepherd and professed lover of the Church about the Crossover Project where
millions of hard-earned member’s money were spent.

I can go on
about China Wine and the perversion of the gospel (which was met with
disapproval from other church leaders), but I think you get the drift.

Where is then
the responsibility and accountability in all this? Where is the stewardship and
shepherdship of God’s people and their money? I can understand that one needs to
readily forgive his or her pastor, he is
just a man after all, but how do you even start the forgiveness,
reconciliation and healing process when the church leaders admit to nothing,
deflect all blame to his subordinates, and rally a defence (not legal mind you)
to insulate himself (and herself) from any wrongdoing? I know one should not be
ashamed of the gospel of Christ, but shouldn’t one be ashamed of the gospel of
lies?

Maybe, Calvin can answer all that with his clear-eyed
conscience?

Second, “who is
the State Prosecution to tell the Church, its members and its leaders if they
should or should not direct their building fund money to invest in a Crossover
love outreach mission, if their Church Constitution already empowers the
Management Board and leaders to do so?” Calvin then talked about the lack of
transparency in the many Town Councils’ alleged investments in “risky
collapsing Lehman Brothers stocks during the 2008 subprime crisis period, and
why they are allowed to divert large funds to invest in such instruments, and
lost millions?”

Here, I am
reminded of the verses that say, “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges
17:6) and ”there
is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”(Proverbs 14:12).

Let
admit it, it’s just a matter of time anyway. Being right at most times is a psychological
sentence that locks one in a self-assuring mental prison of self-belief and
self-invulnerability. The forces that gather once a man or woman thinks he is
right and unimpeachable, even infallible of the ex cathedra kind, are
self-reinforcing, and the resilience that is built up by the deluded will
resist even the plainest of common sense, the sharpest of wits, and the
sincerest of persuasion. And to the deceived, the many numbers that checked
their brains out at the door, it is strangely the coldest comfort that they are
readily prepared to embrace because form always supersedes substance, convenience
is preferred to character, and groupthink prevails over critical individual
reflection.

Thirdly, Calvin
asked these series of questions, and this has to be quoted verbatim so as to
not dilute its biting irony, “If the six charged and accused CHC leaders were
swindlers and cheated of the Church members of their hard earned money, then
why not haul all the 500 Executive Members to come testify and witness? Why
were no victims called to testify?
Why has even no Church Management Board Members been called to testify?”

Well, in the
light of what has happened, and putting aside Mr Poon and the price he had paid
before he was vindicated (and with no
apology forthcoming mind you) and considering that the attendance of CHC had
been slashed by almost half since the start of this fiasco, is CHC really a victimless
church? Is Calvin speaking for the whole church or the members past who had
left and present, that is, is he speaking for those who have donated and will
still donate to CHC with glee or those who had given and then left in disgust
because they felt betrayed and fleeced?

Of course,
Calvin can argue that we are talking about legal wrong here to fit the crime
charged. But in cases like this, where I am talking about how my Savior will go
out of his way to look for that one stray sheep out of the 99, can we honestly
say that CHC under Kong Hee’s and Sun Ho’s leadership has suffered no real
loss? One really has to define loss and let’s not be flippant or legalistic
about it.

Alas, I believe
victimhood is a state of mind, that is, it is a mind-over-matter thing. Yes,
you heard the jingle right, “If you don’t
mind it, it don’t matter.” That is why I guess Calvin boldly wrote this, “How
could you so neglect people like me who is an Executive Member for almost 15
years (in my estimation of years) as witness, and I am just one of the
hundreds?”

I have no doubt that
Calvin, being a “total human-citizen-Christian-CHC Executive Member observer,”
will stand up for Kong Hee and Sun Ho – even if they ask him to sell his house,
car and the shirt on his back for even more dubious and controversial projects
as long as it is all carried out in the pristine name of evangelism. Again, I
reiterate that it is not about what Kong Hee was being legally charged for. It
is however about the spiritual and moral responsibility placed under his
charge. Has he lived up to it? Does he
need to reflect more about it, and not whitewash himself more on the
international and local stage?

Fourthly, and
this is disturbingly strange because Calvin went on to say that “every year we
see government ministries having endless cases of lapses amounting to millions
of dollars unaccounted for properly and all you need is one Cabinet minister to
stand up in public to declare all these lapses were not result of dishonesty
but genuine human errors, with media splashing all over echoing such positive
statement, and then the case is closed with no one daring to question publicly
otherwise,” then he tried to marry
that whole mouthful with this “incompatible
bride”, “now, not that I claim there is dishonesty there (???), but what I
am saying is – who is going to investigate? (for no dishonesty?) Are we sure no
one is having private gain? Why not the State Prosecution haul up all these
offenders and grill them in court to find out as much as they grill the six CHC
accused leaders?”

Is he for real? Is he treading in the rapid waters of
defamatory undertows? Was this expressly or tacitly approved by Kong Hee? Or
did Kong Hee secretly desire for this to be published without thinking about
its negative consequences?

At this moment,
I really don’t know whether he is helping Kong Hee’s cause or is he digging it deeper
into the abyss of guilt for him both in the physical realm and the social media
platform? You be the judge.

Finally, he
repeated the so-called injustices by writing, “What is clear is there is no
wrongful gain to any of the six accused leaders of CHC, as convincingly
established by the defense counsels, yet the Prosecution, riding on the loud
speaker engine of the state media, kept making loud, high sounding,
sensationalized quotes such as “Lies! Falsehood!” - which are all so readily
lapped up by the public as juicy news-bites.”

This is how
Calvin ended, “I hope the establishment could make a convincing deliberation to
end this unworthy protracted longest court case history in Singapore, where the
Prosecution could go as far as the letter simply because the Church was parked
under the Charity code of conduct.

It is time for a national
rethink perhaps to separate religious organizations from the Charities. The
Church is not a charity, period. It is caught in the Achilles heel for law
argument sake simply because of the Charity code, but it is definitely a law
argument without sound conscience or proper moral reasoning.”

Calvin, I know you are focusing on the legal aspect of the comparison between charity and church. However, here is my
one-paragraph reply that is directed at the total forest of things, that is, the bigger picture on church leadership, and not just on a few trees of legal argument. Ready?

“The Church is definitely not
a charity period, because it is much more than a charity. It goes beyond the
standards and codes of conduct expected of a charity, which governs her effectiveness,
transparency, openness, and accountability. The Church is all that and much
more. The Church is ordained by God, led by His Spirit, and has Jesus as her reigning
head. The Church is not called to be followers of men, however promising they
appear to be on stage, but of the Crucified and Risen Christ. The Church is
redeemed by His blood and is counted righteous by that one sacrifice surpassing
all sacrifices of old. Jesus paid the ultimate price and we as his redeemed think,
do, act and respond in all ways and manners that accord unreserved glory, honor
and praise to His name. We are not perfect but in Him, we have our being, our
salvation, our hope, our joy, our faith, our love and our peace. We do fall
sometimes, but what sets us apart is that we admit to it, repent from it and
turn from our wicked ways. Love is not blind Calvin, but it bears the Cross,
pays the price and gives of Himself to and for the Church. Love conquers all,
yes, but first, you must allow it to conquer you and all your worldly desires
(and blind ambition and allegiance). So, you are right, Calvin, the Church is
not a charity period. But it is a place where hearts are transformed, spirits are
lifted, souls are encouraged, our flesh is crucified, lives are born again,
love reigns, leaders sacrifice, leaders take responsibility, leaders shoulder
the blame, leaders lift Jesus high and not themselves or their wife, and
leaders do as they say and say as they do. In the foxhole of church leadership,
the leader is the last to leave. Jesus set the example for the Church, and we
are called to follow that example. And He stayed behind in the foxhole called
Calvary, and he never left. Jesus has called us to live simply since this world
is not our home – lest we mistake its
possession for our possession. We are warned not to let the love of money (or the idolatry of spouse) cause our
downfall. We are called to be beyond reproach as leaders and not to drag the
Church through a legal entanglement that lasted for five years all for a so-called
evangelistic project that is highly questionable, deeply disturbing, undeniably
self-glorifying, wholly unproven and plainly arbitrary. Where is the Crossover now, the seedy gyration, Calvin? Aren’t the
gallivanting couple going back to the good old fashioned evangelism – the way
Jesus did it? We are reminded that we are in the world but not of the
world, and definitely not become the world in order to save the world. We are
called to always turn our eyes upon Jesus and the things of the world will go
strangely dim, and not turn our eyes upon prosperity, membership expansion, multisensory
programs, worldly identification and consummation, indulgent living, and promoting
a culture of secrecy that is controlled by one, and allow the high calling and the
glorified name of Jesus to go insidiously dim.”

Calvin, I know you love your
pastor. I know you wish him well. I know you may see all this as worldly
persecution. But put all that aside, reflecting for yourself, away from the
mesmerizing crowd and culture, do you think Kong Hee and Sun Ho have nothing to
apologize for, nothing that they have done, judged, said, and thought wrong
that they should be responsible and accountable for?

Leaving legal aside, is Kong
Hee “morally blameless” for the lies,
deception, arbitrariness, obsession and misappropriation? Is he strategically reserving
an apology to an opportune time because it is inconvenient and inappropriate to
do so before the trial ends then and before the appeal concludes now?

Bro, is there a rightful time to take responsibility for a wrongful
crime (or moral wrong)?

I hope that in the same way
that I have deeply reflected and replied to what you have written, you would do
the same for mine. For it is undeniable that all 500 of you will unquestionably
stand up for Kong Hee, but will you stand up for what is right? Cheerz.

7 comments:

I do not mean to offend; I seek only to understand. I have read Calvin's post, and I have now read your response. Before I ask my question, let me disclose that I do not belong to the Christian faith. Thus I am really not biased for or against the 6. My question: "When the standard is one that only Jesus, the Son of God, could meet, surely the majority of men would not be able to meet. That being the case, is it fair to judge the 6 by that yardstick?"

It's never fair to judge the 6 by that yardstick. But that cannot be the end of it. The Christian faith is about transformation, about growth, about repentance, about hope, about humility. Perfection is not achievable this side of heaven, but that is no excuse to live by whims and fancy, being rudderless, doing as thy pleases. The Christian faith calls for overcoming, following in Jesus' footsteps, submitting our heart, surrendering our will, controlling our carnal desires all under His might. It is a process, a discipline, a journey. There is still a yardstick that the 6 and all those who profess the faith ought to follow. This yardstick draws us to the perfect and this consistent drawing near brings out the fruits in our discipline in faith, love and hope. Growth in the Christian faith is about self-denial and humble submission, subjecting our will to the greater Will of our Creator. It is always a struggle because overcoming takes character, perseverance, resilience and hope. And I believe the 6 failed to live up to that yardstick, not perfection mind you, but the process of perfecting. That is, the process of taking personal responsibility, leading by example, and moving forward by reforming. These are not beyond the will of men, what's more leaders. What complicates matter is the resistance to confront oneself, to shut out the white noises of personal greed and ambition so that one can see more clearly the flaws in oneself. We all have demons to face and living and growing and maturing is about taking each demons by horn by the power of our Christian faith and driving them to a place of disempowerment. That's the yardstick upon which we as believers are called to follow and we own it to ourselves to rise up stronger for every time we fall. That's what we call transformation. That's what we call growth. That's what we call living up to the example of Jesus. Cheerz.

I fully agree with Mike's reply. The transformation process is called sanctification.

Read http://www.acts17-11.com/rebuke.html where the author writes that "God uses discipline as a last resort. If all God needed to justify mankind to himself was a bigger cattle-prod, then Christ died for nothing! No, God's plan for the earth is love first, discipline last. To get us to listen and repent, he will use deep conviction, the rebuke of friends, coincident sermons, the quickening of Scripture, and every other means before disciplining us. But if we resist God's Spirit of light and mercy, we are promised the rod of correction. When God disciplines, the punishment fits the crime. Time and again, we realize that we cannot get away with unrepentant sin. God is sculpting us into holy vessels, and the process can be painful."

Continued unrepentance may lead to a reprobate mind and there is always a fearful possibility that his/her name will be blotted from the Lamb's Book of Life.